The aim of this paper is to give a formal definition and consistent estimates of the extremes of a population. This definition relies on a threshold value that delimits the extremes and on the uniform convergence of the distribution of these extremes to a Pareto type distribution. The tail...

We discuss statistical inference problems associated with identification and testability in econometrics. We consider inference in non-parametric models and weakly identified structural models (weak instruments). We point out that many statistical problems, such as non-testable hypotheses, occur...

This paper extends commonly used tests for equality of hazard rates in a two-sample or k-sample setup to a situation where the covariate under study is continuous. In other words, we test the hypothesis that the conditional hazard rate is the same for all covariate values, against the omnibus...

We use a variety of nonparametric test statistics to evaluate the inflation- targeting regimes of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and the UK. We argue that a sensible approach of evaluation must rely on a variety of methods, among them parametric and nonparametric econometric methods, for...

In aggregation theory, the admissibility condition for clustering together components to be aggregated is blockwise weak separability, which also is the condition needed to separate out sectors of the economy. Although weak separability is thereby of central importance in aggregation and index...

In complex models like hidden Markov chains, the convergence of the MCMC algorithms used to approximate the posterior distribution and the Bayes estimates of the parameters of interest must be controlled in a robust manner. We propose in this paper a series of on-line controls, which rely on...

The correlated gamma-frailty model is a generalization of Cox' proportional hazard model, which allows for correlation between individuals within the same group. The nonparametric maximum likelihood estimator in this model has previously been studied by Murphy (1994, 1995) and Parner (1998)....

This paper tests whether the Law of Proportionate Effects (Gibrat, 1931), which states that farms grow at a rate that is independent of their size, holds for the dairy farms in Northern Ireland. Previous studies have tended to concentrate on testing whether the law holds for all farms. The...

This paper studies aspects of the broad class of log-concave probability distributions that arise in the economics of uncertainty and information. Useful properties of univariate log-concave distributions are proven without imposing differentiability of density functions. We also discuss...

The purpose of this paper is to characterize three commonly used double unit root tests in terms of their asymptotic local power. To this end, we study a class of nearly doubly integrated processes which in the limit will behave as a weighted integral of a double indexed Ornstein-Uhlenbeck...